Press Releases

Washington, DC – Today, Citizens United filed a FOIA lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the United States State Department.

“As Citizens United conducts pre-production research for the sequel to Hillary The Movie, the State Department has stonewalled our request for public records on official taxpayer-funded travel overseas,” said David N. Bossie, President of Citizens United. “The American people have a right to know who accompanied Secretary Clinton on these trips. Were there any big political contributors to previous or future Clinton campaigns on board? Were there any Clinton Foundation financial supporters on board? These are important questions that need to be answered, especially considering the allegations that arose regarding Commerce Department trade missions during the Clinton Administration in the 1990s.”

Timeline Of How We Got To This Point:

• On May 13, 2014 Citizens United filed a FOIA request with the Air Force District of Washington requesting passenger manifests and mission expense records for Special Air Mission flights of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• On May 22, 2014 the Air Force District of Washington notified Citizens United that it did not have any responsive records and was transferring the request to the Air Mobility Command.
• Air Mobility Command notified Citizens United on June 2, 2014 that it had “no records” pertaining to the manifests or expense records for Secretary Clinton’s Special Air Mission flights. Following an appeal from Citizens United the Air Mobility Command explained that it did “conduct a thorough search for responsive records” but that “[n]o mission expense records were located, and the Air Force does not keep a copy of the manifest once a flight is completed.”
• On July 15, 2014 Citizens United filed a FOIA request with the State Department requesting the passenger manifests and mission expense records that the Air Force had failed to keep records of. The Air Force had suggested to Citizens United that such records should be requested from the State Department.
• The State Department, by law, had until August 12, 2014 to produce any and all responsive documents, unless they were subject to an exemption from FOIA.
• As of December 9, 2014 the State Department has yet to provide any documents, or provide any information as to when they may comply with Citizens United’s FOIA request.
• Because the State Department has failed to comply with FOIA, Citizens United’s next step is to file a lawsuit to compel production of the documents.